While comics and graphic novels being optioned for film are practically a daily occurrence around here, there’s one movie that we would REALLY like to see get made, and that’s the planned BRAT PACK film from Ars Nova (BLACK DYNAMITE). A stunningly dark look at the superhero universe, it’s one of the most disturbing — and pointed — takes on the genre ever.

Now, we hear from the grapevine that the adaptation has a director — Tarik Saleh is on board to direct a live-action version that is faithful to the tone of the source. Saleh, whose background is as a graffiti artist, is known for METROPIA, an innovative animated Swedish film with a script by Saleh, Fredrik Edin and the late Stig Larsson.

Let the casting ideas begin for Midnight Mink, Judge Jury and the rest of the Slumberg superhero set.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.

What a nice surprise! Good for Rick Veitch, to get some of that movie option money, he’s certainly paid his dues in the cartoon trenches and deserves it. I dunno if it will be possible to replicate the tone, especially the distinctive ways that Rick plays with panels and parallel storylines in that book. It would be quite a dark film, I imagine. But I think we’ve mostly learned to separate our enjoyment of the original comics from any adaptations, so whatever happens, we can accept it.